Health & Fitness
A "Bird's Eye" View of Santa Cruz in 1870
This unusual "bird's eye" view lithograph shows what Santa Cruz looked like in 1870.
This post is a departure from the blog's usual chronological progression, but I hope no one will mind if we jump back to 1870 to look at the earliest known (to me) panoramic view of Santa Cruz. It's not actually a photograph but a lithograph, and the original lives in the collections of Bancroft Library in Berkeley. Thanks to the folks at Bancroft, we can view it in detail online with handy pan/zoom controls. You'll want to do that in order to follow the comments below.
The original lithograph includes a 26-item key (in the bottom border) to features shown in the panorama. I decided to check the accuracy of the key notes and compare them with other sources. There are two principal sources for identification of the structures (if you don't yet have copies of these books, you can buy both at Santa Cruz MAH, or check them out at SCPL):
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- Chase, John L. Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture (3rd ed. 2005)
- Elliott, W. W. Santa Cruz County Illustrations, with Historical Sketch (1879).
Comments on the 26-item key (text as appears on key bold below):
- Coast Road. No: it’s Bay Street, originally known as Lime Kiln Road. The actual Coast Road (now the western extension of Mission Street) is shown but not labeled. The first section of Mission Street, from Lower Plaza to Upper Plaza, is labeled correctly (14).
- Road to Lighthouse. Correct: that’s today’s Lighthouse Street, although the field of view is not wide enough to show the lighthouse itself (built 1869).
- Davis and Cowell Wharf. Correct: Henry Cowell bought out Davis’ original partner A. P. Jordan in 1865.
- Laurel Street Public School. Correct: Local historian Margaret Koch was unsure when this school opened (see chronological list of school openings) Chase mentions only the later Laurel School (now the Louden Nelson Center). The Sentinel, however, documents construction of a school prior to 1870:
1862 Jul 25
Description: Laurel St. school nearly completed [Full Record]
Name(s): ,
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel
Page and Column: 3:1
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1868 Jun 06
Description: New school on Washington and Laurel streets [Full Record]
Name(s): ,
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel
Page and Column: 2:2
5. Pacific Avenue. Correct: the name was changed from Willow Street in 1866.
6. California Powder Company’s wharf. Correct: originally built by David Gharkey, the wharf was acquired by the Powder Co. in the early 1860s. Note: several early sources () mis-identified the Gharkey wharf as an earlier version of the “railroad” wharf built in 1874-5.
7. Episcopal Church. Correct: Calvary Episcopal opened in 1865.
8. Congregational Church. Correct: Church Street was named for this church, built in 1858.
9. Unity Church – Correct: built on Walnut Street in 1868. SCPL has a photo.
10. Baptist Church – Correct: built above the bluff on Locust Street in 1867. Chase reproduces a photo on p.74.
11. Methodist Church – Correct: shown is the second building of the town’s oldest Protestant church, built in 1863 at the corner of Mission and Green streets. Note: the lithograph shows the slope of Green Street and Mission Hill much gentler than reality.
12. Roman Catholic Church – Correct: shown is the wooden Holy Cross church built in 1857 to replace the original adobe chapel, damaged in the Fort Tejon earthquake. The repaired remainder of the adobe building can be seen to the right, which was demolished in 1889 to build the current Holy Cross church (see Chase, p. 99; and Elliott, p.f6).
13. Upper Plaza – Correct: notice the lack of any landscaping.
14. Mission Street - Correct: perhaps only the first section from the Lower Plaza (18) to the Upper Plaza (13) was known as Mission Street in 1870?
15. Sisters’ School – Correct: shown is the first school building, formerly William Blackburn’s Eagle Hotel, and originally built ca.1835 as the “juzgado” – home of the local Mexican civic government offices (see Elliott, p.f6).
16. Public School. Correct: shown is the first Mission Hill School, built in 1857. This is the only picture I’ve found of this building.
17. Temperance Hall – Correct (see photo in Chase, p.87)
18. Lower Plaza – Correct: many of the buildings are identifiable.
19. Stage Road to San Jose – One of the “19” labels is on the Water Street Bridge. That was the first bridge across the San Lorenzo River. Shown is the first version of the bridge, which was built on piles like a wharf and didn’t last through a big winter storm in 1871. The other “19” label is on what is now north Ocean Street, at about the location of McDonald’s.
20. IOOF Hall and Post Office – No: the IOOF building was not built until 1873, and it was on the other side of Pacific . Shown is the McPherson Bldg. (1868 – photo in Chase p.143). The building still stands at the southwest corner of Pacific and Locust, although much remodeled.
21. County Courthouse – Correct: the first courthouse was built in 1866 (see photo in Chase, p.161). It burned down in 1894 and was replaced by the “Cooper House” building.
22. Main Street – Wrong: the name changed from Main to Front Street in 1866, with the publication of the first city street map (Foreman and Wright).
23. San Lorenzo River – Correct (labeled in two places)
24. Watsonville Road – Correct: today’s Soquel Avenue
25. Branciforte River – Correct
26. Bathing House – The structure shown appears to be temporary or, at best, hastily built. It’s not one of the more-permanent “baths” (e.g. Dolphin, Neptune) built in the 1880s where the Boardwalk is now.
Many other buildings, streets and other features can be identified in this “bird’s eye” view. The next phase of this project will be to create and annotate a PDF version of the lithograph.
